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1500 questions
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Is Stephen Hawking's denial that gods exists founded on a misunderstanding?
In this days I'm following an interesting scientific TV program and yesterday I watched an interview of Stephen Hawking. He was arguing about the existence of God saying that God does not exist since the universe had an origin, and before it time…
Dipok
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What is the meaning of “to fight a Catch-22 is to accept it”?
From Wikipedia, it says “Catch-22s often result from rules, regulations, or procedures that an individual is subject to, but has no control over, because to fight the rule is to accept it.” What exactly does that last part even mean? How do you…
Anthony Fallone
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8
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Peano Axioms have models other than the natural numbers, why is this ok?
Why do we say that the Peano Axioms define the natural numbers when there are more models other than natural numbers for those axioms? Maybe it is a confusion relative to the word "define", which I understand as a description that, when applied,…
Harpagos
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Is the machinic ontology in Anti-Oedipus metaphysical or psychological?
I am beginning reading Anti-Oedipus and am trying to understand the synthesis of two notions D+G discuss in the first section on Desiring Machines:
The quasi-metaphysical conception of everything as a 'circuit' of flows and interruptions; basically…
Cameron
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Do humans have skills we haven't discovered yet?
I was thinking about the invention of writing. Before we had writing, we didn't have writing; but we had the potential to have writing. We know this because cats and caterpillars don't have writing, but humans do; yet, humans once didn't have…
user4894
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8
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1 answer
Is physicalism ultimately essentialist?
Classical Greek atomism arose basically as a response to the Eleatic criticism of the concept of change. The Eleatic argument was basically that if X=Y, then all properties of X must also be properties of Y, but if X is a thing at one time and Y is…
David Gudeman
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8
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5 answers
Epistemic value of multiple eyewitness accounts: single event vs. multiple events given a fixed number of eyewitnesses?
Intuitively speaking, multiple independent eyewitness accounts of a single event are more convincing than a single eyewitness account. For example, multiple independent eyewitness accounts of a loud explosion in a remote area (e.g. from different…
user48437
8
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16 answers
Can we doubt all knowledge?
Can we doubt all knowledge from all sources (perception, reports, and reason)?
Regarding doubting reason, reason can't be proven, it is preceived and judged instantly by our logic, but what if our logic is not true?
Did anyone ever doubt that much?…
AZeed
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6 answers
Is Art beyond logic?
When one moves from Natural language to a logical one, then the motivation , to my understanding is to cut down the amount of ambiguity which can be there in communication.
However, I find it that many things of beauty in real life, derive their…
tryst with freedom
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Do we cause words to mean things, or do words cause us to mean things?
This question occurred to me while reviewing a skeptical argument from Kripke regarding semantics:
Suppose that I’ve never dealt with numbers larger than 57. (Given our finite nature and the infinitude of the natural number series, there will…
Kristian Berry
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8
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We know reality exists but can we prove what is real?
The common Athiest argument is "I base my life on facts and truth."
My stance is that no one wholly bases their life on facts and truths, because, at some point, facts and truths have a level of faith and belief behind them. Yes, we know that there…
Websoflife
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8
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1 answer
Source for "The world is beautiful, but has a disease called man"?
It seems resonant with certain elements of his philosophy, and is generally attributed to Nietzsche, but I cannot seem to find the precise source anywhere.
I was struck, in passing, by the variety of different critical or theoretical enterprises…
Joseph Weissman
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2 answers
Neo-liberalism, language and freedom?
Background
Byung Chulhan in his book psychopolitics defines freedom in two ways:
a. He defines it as an interlude which the subject feels when passing between lifestyles or ideologies. This is a somewhat cynical approach to defining liberty…
More Anonymous
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8
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6 answers
Is there "empirical" distance without "mathematical" distance?
Mathematicians since antiquity have been thinking about length and angle, including doing things with straight-edges, rulers, compasses, and protractors. Fast-forward to modern physics, and you'll see everything from the Euclidean distance in…
Galen
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8
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5 answers
How would Kant have responded to Darwin's conception of human evolution?
How would Kant have responded to Darwin? That is, how would Kant's theory on the individual as being comprised of a unity of consciousness (in his critique on pure reason), with the theory of Darwin's conception of man as a product of…
patrick
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